名著·查太莱夫人的情人 - 第10节


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  韩蒙听了似乎有点生气。他对自己的心地清白、不随俗浮沉是有点自负的。虽然这样,他确实是希望成功的。

   It's quite true, you can't live without cash,' said May. You've got to have a certain amount of it to be able to live and get along...even to be free to think you must have a certain amount of money, or your stomach stops you. But it seems to me you might leave the labels off sex. We're free to talk to anybody; so why shouldn't we be free to make love to any woman who inclines us that way?' "

  那是真的,你没有钱便不能生活。"查理梅说,"你得有相当的钱才能生活下去……没有钱,甚至思想都不能自由,否则你的肚子是不答应地的。但是在我看来,在性爱上,你尽可以把标签除去。我们既可以自由地向任何人谈话,那么为什么我们不能向任何我们所喜欢的女子求爱呢?"

   There speaks the lascivious Celt,' said Clifford. "

  好色的色尔特人的说法。"克利福说。

   Lascivious! well, why not---? I can't see I do a woman any more harm by sleeping with her than by dancing with her...or even talking to her about the weather. It's just an interchange of sensations instead of ideas, so why not?' "

  好色!哼!为什么不可以?我不明白炎什么同一个女人睡觉,比同她跳舞……如谈天气的好坏,对有什么更大的害处,那不过是感觉的交换代替思想的交换罢了。那为什么不可以?"

   Be as promiscuous as the rabbits!' said Hammond. "

  象兔子一样的苟合?"韩蒙说。

  为什么不可以?兔子有什么不对?难道兔子比那神经病的,革命的,充湖仇恨的人类更坏么?"

   But we're not rabbits, even so,' said Hammond. "

  可是我们并不是兔子呀。"韩蒙说。

   Precisely! I have my mind: I have certain calculations to make in certain astronomical matters that concern me almost more than life or death. Sometimes indigestion interferes with me. Hunger would interfere with me disastrously. In the same way starved sex interferes with me. What then?' "

  不错,我们有个心灵。我有些关于天文的问题要计算,这问题于我差不多比生死还重要。有时消化不良妨碍我的工作,饮饿的时候妨碍得更厉害。同样,性的饮饿也妨碍我,怎么办呢?"

   I should have thought sexual indigestion from surfeit would have interfered with you more seriously,' said Hammond satirically. "

  我想你受的是性欲过度后的消化不良的苦罢。"韩蒙讥讽地说。

   Not it! I don't over-eat myself and I don't over-fuck myself. One has a choice about eating too much. But you would absolutely starve me.' "

  不是!我吃也不过度。性交也不过度。过度是可以自由制止的。但是钢钢笔便没有办法,你想叫我饿死么?

  一点也不!你可以结婚呀?"

   How do you know I can? It may not suit the process of my mind. Marriage might...and would...stultify my mental processes. I'm not properly pivoted that way...and so must I be chained in a kennel like a monk? All rot and funk, my boy. I must live and do my calculations. I need women sometimes. I refuse to make a mountain of it, and I refuse anybody's moral condemnation or prohibition. I'd be ashamed to see a woman walking around with my name-label on her, address and railway station, like a wardrobe trunk.' "

  你怎么知道我可以结婚?结婚也许不宜于我的精神结构。结婚也许要把我的精神变成荒谬"我是不适于结婚的……那么我便应该象和尚似的关在狗笼里么?没有这样狂妄的事,我的朋友,我必要生活和弄我的计算。我有时也需要女人。这并不是什么了不起的事,谁要发什么道德风化的议论,我都不睬。如果有个女人,象个箱子似的带着我的名字和住下场的标签,到处乱跑,我定要觉得羞耻的。"

   These two men had not forgiven each other about the Julia flirtation.

  因为和朱丽亚调情的事,这两个人自抱着怨恨。

   It's an amusing idea, Charlie,' said Dukes, that sex is just another form of talk, where you act the words instead of saying them. I suppose it's quite true. I suppose we might exchange as many sensations and emotions with women as we do ideas about the weather, and so on. Sex might be a sort of normal physical conversation between a man and a woman. You don't talk to a woman unless you have ideas in common: that is you don't talk with any interest. And in the same way, unless you had some emotion or sympathy in common with a woman you wouldn't sleep with her. But if you had...' "

  查理,你这意思倒很有趣。"督克斯说,"性交不过是谈话的加一种形式,不过谈话是把字句说出来,而性交却是把宇各项做出来罢了。我觉得这是很对的。我以为我们既可以和女子们交换时好时坏的意见。也尽可以和她们交换性欲的感觉和情绪。性交可以说是男女间肉体的正常的谈话,谈起来也会是索然无味的。同样的道理,假如你和一个女子没有共通的情欲或同情,你便不跟她睡觉。但你是若有了……

   If you have the proper sort of emotion or sympathy with a woman, you ought to sleep with her,' said May. It's the only decent thing, to go to bed with her. Just as, when you are interested talking to someone, the Only decent thing is to have the talk out. You don't prudishly put your tongue between your teeth and bite it. You just say out your say. And the same the other way.' "

  你若对一个女人共有了相当的情绪或同情时,你便该和她睡觉。"查里梅说,"和她睡去,这唯一可干的正经画。同样的道理,要是你和谁谈得有味时,你便谈个痛快。这是唯一可干的下经事。你并不假惺惺地咬着舌头不说。那时你是欲罢不能的。和女人睡觉也是这个道理。"

  不,"韩蒙道,"这话不对。拿你自己来说罢,老梅,你一半的精力浪费在女人身上。你固然有才能,但你决不会干你应该干的事情。你的才能在那另一方面用得太多了。"

   Maybe it does...and too little of you goes that way, Hammond, my boy, married or not. You can keep the purity and integrity of your mind, but it's going damned dry. Your pure mind is going as dry as fiddlesticks, from what I see of it. You're simply talking it down.' "

  也许……不过,亲爱的韩蒙,不管你结过婚没有,你的才能却在这一方面用得太少了。你的心灵也许保持着纯洁正直,但是你的心耿是干枯下去的。在我看来,你那纯洁的心灵却干核得和木竿一样。你愈说愈干。"

   Tommy Dukes burst into a laugh.

  唐米·督克斯不禁大笑起来。

   Go it, you two minds!' he said. Look at me...I don't do any high and pure mental work, nothing but jot down a few ideas. And yet I neither marry nor run after women. I think Charlie's quite right; if he wants to run after the women, he's quite free not to run too often. But I wouldn't prohibit him from running. As for Hammond, he's got a property instinct, so naturally the straight road and the narrow gate are right for him. You'll see he'll be an English Man of Letters before he's done. A.B.C. from top to toe. Then there's me. I'm nothing. Just a squib. And what about you, Clifford? Do you think sex is a dynamo to help a man on to success in the world?' "

  算了罢,你们两个心灵!"他说,"你们看我……。我并不干什么高尚纯洁的心灵工作,我只记取点他人的意见。然而我既不结婚,也不追逐女人。我觉得查里是很对的;要是他想去追逐女人,他很自由地可以不追逐得过火。但是我决不禁止他去追逐。至于韩蒙呢,他有的是占有的天性,因此那迳直的路和狭隘的门自然是适合他的了。你们瞧瞧着罢,他不久便要成为真正的英国文豪,从头到脚都是ABC的。至于我自己呢,我什么都说不上,我只是个好花舌的人,你的意见怎样,克利福?你以为性爱是帮助一个男子在世上成功的发电机么?"

   Clifford rarely talked much at these times. He never held forth; his ideas were really not vital enough for it, he was too confused and emotional. Now he blushed and looked uncomfortable.

  在这种情境里,克利福是不太说话的。他一向是不当众演说的,他的思想实在缺少力量,他太摸不清头脑而且太易感动了。督克斯的问题使他不安地脸红起来。

  晤!"克利福讷讷着说,"无论怎样我想我没有多大的意见……我想,'结婚罢,不要多说了',这大概便是我的意见。虽然,在一对相爱的男女之间,房事是一件重要的事,这是当然的了。"

   What sort of great thing?' said Tommy. "

  怎样重要呢?"督克斯问道。

   Oh...it perfects the intimacy,' said Clifford, uneasy as a woman in such talk. "

  啊……那可以促进亲密。"克利福说,这种谈话使他不安得象一个女子一样。

   Well, Charlie and I believe that sex is a sort of communication like speech. Let any woman start a sex conversation with me, and it's natural for me to go to bed with her to finish it, all in due season. Unfortunately no woman makes any particular start with me, so I go to bed by myself; and am none the worse for it...I hope so, anyway, for how should I know? Anyhow I've no starry calculations to be interfered with, and no immortal works to write. I'm merely a fellow skulking in the army...' "

  好,查里和我都相信性交是一种互通声气的方法,象说话一样。要是一个女子开始同我作性的谈话,自然时机一到,我便要把这种谈话同她到床上去完成。不幸的是没有女子同我开始谈这种话,所以我只好独自上床去,而我的身子也不见得有什么更坏……至少我这佯希望,因为我怎么知道呢?无论如何,我没有什么天文计算要被妨碍,也没有什么不朽的著作要写,我只是个隐匿在军队里的懒汉罢了。"

   Silence fell. The four men smoked. And Connie sat there and put another stitch in her sewing...Yes, she sat there! She had to sit mum. She had to be quiet as a mouse, not to interfere with the immensely important speculations of these highly-mental gentlemen. But she had to be there. They didn't get on so well without her; their ideas didn't flow so freely. Clifford was much more hedgy and nervous, he got cold feet much quicker in Connie's absence, and the talk didn't run. Tommy Dukes came off best; he was a little inspired by her presence. Hammond she didn't really like; he seemed so selfish in a mental way. And Charles May, though she liked something about him, seemed a little distasteful and messy, in spite of his stars.

  房子里沉静下来了。四个男子在吸烟。康妮坐在那儿,一针一针地做活……是人,她坐在那儿,她得一声不响地坐在那儿。她得象一个耗子似的静坐在那儿,不去打扰这些知识高超的贵绅们路每项重要的争论。她不得不坐在那儿;没有她,他们的谈话便没有这么起劲;他们的意见便不能这么自由发挥了。没有康妮,克利福便要变成更局促,更不安,更易烦躁,谈话便无生气。唐米·督免斯是最健谈的;康妮的在场,有点使他觉得兴致勃然。她不大喜欢韩蒙,她觉得他在心灵上是个自私自利的人,至于查理·梅,她虽然觉得他有的地方可喜,却有点讨厌他,管他的什么星象。

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名著·查太莱夫人的情人 - 第10节